SPIRITUAL FOUNDATIONS FOR AN ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY

[Max]

SPIRITUAL FOUNDATIONS FOR AN ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY

Contents: REVISIONING CULTURAL ATTITUDES TO NATURE RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE: A BAHÁ'Í PERSPECTIVE UNITY WITH NATURE: WHOLENESS AND COOPERATIVE INTERRELATIONSHIP OF CREATION SPIRITUAL DETACHMENT FROM NATURE: A REQUIREMENT OF CONSCIOUS SPIRITUALITY HUMILITY A NEW VISION OF WHOLENESS IN OUR RELATIONSHIP TO NATURE TOWARDS A GLOBAL CIVILIZATION: THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF AN ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE THE UNITY PARADIGM: PRECONDITION FOR AN ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY GLOBALISM AND DECENTRALISM SCIENCE AND RELIGION: A NECESSARY UNITY MALE AND FEMALE: EQUALITY AND BALANCE THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW WORLD ORDER SUMMARY APPENDIX Notes & References

The evolving consciousness of humanity is moving inexorably to the development of a new planetary culture. In an ecological sense, humanity has appeared, in many respects, to be a delinquent species running out of control. Within a larger vision of humanity's spiritual and social evolution, however, the present environmental crisis and the race's reaction to it may be seen as portending a momentous transformation. In the emerging knowledge in physics, ecology, psychology and other fields of science lies the promise of a mature cooperative relationship between humanity and the ecosphere that gave it birth. REVISIONING CULTURAL ATTITUDES TO NATURE The dominant response to environmental issues over the past several decades has been mitigative. Environmental legislation, particularly in industrialized countries, has helped to ameliorate some of the worst forms of air and water pollution while research has focused on developing better methods of monitoring environmental change. Environmental groups have focused largely on protecting endangered species and wilderness areas. They have also been effective in sounding the alarm on the ideology of consumerism and unbridled industrial growth. While visible national and local issues have received much attention, the more ominous cumulative effects of human activities on the planetary ecology as a whole have emerged to overshadow these efforts. Rapidly progressing environmental alterations — global warming, ozone depletion, soil degradation, forest depletion, and species extinction — threaten the delicate ecological balance of the ecosphere. As the twentieth century draws to a close, the threat of irreversible degradation of planetary life systems by these and other possible unanticipated dangers has come to replace nuclear war as the primary concern of collective security.